Saturday, November 29, 2008

A Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in New York. I've never understood why people would want to go out shopping on a day that's so crazy that it's generally known as Black Friday, just to save a few bucks. It just isn't worth it. This has me even more dumbfounded than usual.

Scientists have found the mechanism for how resveratrol slows aging, and have demonstrated that it also works in mice. This could be huge. In the meantime, drink some wine and/or grape juice. Wow, we really loved run-on sentences when we wrote that thing (I can't remember whether I wrote it or edited it, but it was one of the first things I worked on at my current job).

Foundation movies are coming! It'll be interesting to see if they pull them off. If I'm remembering the right book in the series, Foundation spans hundreds of years (the series certainly does). That's a tricky series to make.

As far as I've ever been able to tell (and I have no good data to back this up, mostly because I don't feel like spending a lot of time researching this post), Americans tend to gravitate to the center without necessarily knowing what that means. That might be just as unfair as the Obama=center-right meme, but it feels true. I even thought I was moderate until I started to really learn what words like "liberal," "conservative," (politically) "left," and (politically) "right" meant.

So, what the heck, let's call Obama center-right. Closing Gitmo? Fine, let's call that a center-right position, and pretend that the real centrist position is fixing the FISA courts (nudge nudge, wink wink). Putting people to work through a public works program that simultaneously repairs our infrastruture? Sure, what the heck, that's a center-right position. Raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment, that's the real centrist position.

I skipped yesterday, so here are some shared items from the last couple days. I'm going to try to limit the ones I post to my very favorites, so check my shared items for the rest if you're interested.

Technology:

Researchers at Georgia Tech are developing emotionless killing machines to better apply ethics rules, such as the Geneva Conventions, on the field of battle. I'm mostly blogging this so the resistance in the future will have another spot in the archive that they can recover to figure out where in time to send their soldiers to try to save us all.

Monday, November 24, 2008

I don't often share the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, but I read everything they post, because grammar mistakes make me point and laugh. When said mistakes occur on the sign for an elementary school (not even, semi-excusably, on the part that changes; no, this is on the permanent part), I have to share it.

This isn't a shared item, but I'm watching Rachel Maddow without a DVR buffer since the Daily Show and Colbert were repeats, and I just saw a commercial for some hair-removal device. If you act now, you get a smaller one for "lips, chin, and sensitive areas." Do you really want to use the same hair-removal device on your lips, chin, and "sensitive areas?"

Somehow it surprised me that Biden was replaced in the Senate by his former chief-of-staff, rather than by his son, Beau. Apparently everyone knew this was going to happen; that the chief-of-staff is holding the seat for 2 years presumably to allow Beau to run for it when he gets back from Iraq/finishes his term as Delaware Attorney General. How did I miss that?

Bush has begun his end-of-term pardons. I shared this mostly for this sentence (emphasis mine): "Those issued reprieves had been found guilty of mostly garden-variety offenses, like Leslie O. Collier, who was issued a pardon for a 1996 conviction for the unauthorized use of a pesticide in killing bald eagles.

Science:

A study has shown that napping boosts "sophisticated memory." I don't really have anything to add to that, except that it's awesome news; I'm not being lazy, I'm just pumping up my memory. Oh, and in the other story linked from that page, it says not to watch TV and/or read stuff off of a monitor just before going to bed. So, of course, I'm blogging and watching MSNBC before heading to bed. Oops.

We're going to Jupiter in 2011, but not Europa. Why not Europa?? We know Europa is probably the best bet for finding life in the solar system. I can't imagine a bigger scientific find than extraterrestrial life. Why aren't we checking the place that we think offers the best chance of finding life??? To answer my own question, I know they're terrified that they won't properly sterilize the mission, and we'll find life only to have it killed off by bacteria on the probe. Well, that and we need to send some sort of drilling machine if we do it, because it'd have to go through tons of ice to get to the possible ocean. But we should at least plan to spin any probe that goes to Jupiter over to Europa to help us map that moon out for a future mission.

I choose to read this url as "22 asses s." David E. Sanger of the NY Times editorial page took a break from trying to stir up a war with Iran to point out that picking competent people like Hillary (State) and Geithner (Treasury) means Obama plans to govern from the center-right. While ready the rightwing nuts trying to claim (now) that Obama is center-right, after claiming throughout the campaign that he was dangerously liberal (or even Marxist), is annoying, it's also hilarious.

[Most recent; this tag is just so I can figure out where I left off, now that I'm breaking things up into categories] Lifehacker links to a story about how to make hot sauce (Tabasco-ish stuff, not salsa). The article itself is nice, but the early comments have some great tips, as well.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Since Obama picked the two people I endorsed yesterday, I guess I should go ahead and finish picking. Let's see how I do! Let me know in the comments if I've missed any confirmations/strong rumors of positions being filled already, or, really, even weak rumors.

Vice President of the United States: Joe Biden. I called it in August 2007 when Biden defended Obama at a debate, but somehow people thought Biden had been harsh on Obama in debates. I don't get it. Anyhoo, I approve.

White House Chief of Staff: Rham Emmanuel. I strongly approve; it shows Obama plans to get things done through Congress, not through signing statements.

Secretary of Defense: Probably will remain Gates until we get out of Iraq, or move strongly in that direction. I wouldn't be surprised if he's replaced with Chuck Hagel eventually, though, if Hagel doesn't fill any other roles.

Secretary of the Interior:Raul Grijalva would be an interesting choice, mostly because either Napolitano or her replacement would get to name his replacement in the house.

Secretary of Labor: The only name I've seen other than Granholm (see Energy, below) is Dennis Archer. I don't really know much about him, but in general a Labor Secretary from Michigan just makes sense to me. Growing up the son of an autoworker can do that to you.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: The only name I've seen is Valerie Jarrett. She seems like a long-shot to me, but I can't find or think of anyone else. What, exactly, does HUD do?

Secretary of Transportation: I expect this to be someone who has been vocal, preferably before the Minnesota bridge collapse but definitely since, about infrastructure development. I don't have a name yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was someone higher up than you'd normally see taking this appointment, a governor or a powerful member of Congress. Edited to add: Oh, I like Earl Blumenauer as a pick. Apparently he's big on public transportation and biking. 'Twould be interesting in SecTrans.

Secretary of Energy:Jennifer Granholm (current Governor of Michigan). I had her picked for Labor, but my sister pointed out that she'd been talked about for Energy, and I definitely prefer that. Bringing her in basically makes this the Secretary of Making Detroit Work on Fuel Efficiency. Plus it gets a guy from (but not born in)my hometown into the Governor's seat in Michigan.

Secretary of Education:Colin Powell. I've heard rumors of this, or I never would have thought of it, but from what I can tell he'd be a great fit. And I don't only think that because he advocates student use of new technologies. Only mostly because of that.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs: This could be what Hagel is given, at least for a year or two before moving to Defense. I'm not sure Kerry would accept it, or I'd think he'd be likely.

"Cabinet-level" positions:

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: Please, please, please don't pick Bobby Kennedy, Jr. He's an anti-science buffoon. I wish Gore would accept this one. Since he says he won't, I'm afraid Kennedy will probably get the job. Edited to add: I just read Lincoln Chafee as a maybe. I like.

Director of the National Drug Control Policy: No idea. This is cabinet-level? Really? I expect this one to be someone with treatment cred, other than that who knows.

United States Trade Representative: Again, this is cabinet-level? Isn't this kinda Commerce? Again, no clue.

I'll try to solidify my picks as I hear more rumblings and can get a bit better informed. But something struck me working on this: there are multiple articles about virtually every position, and I've heard about quite a few of them. Other than talk of Powell as SecState for Bush, I don't remember hearing anything. It's exciting that we're paying so much attention this time; it'll be hard for a craptastic pick to sneak through (except Kennedy, because people don't realize/accept that he's a dolt).

I hadn't endorsed Richardson for Commerce, per se, but it works for me. I mostly like it because Richardson seems to be a smart guy, but he always sounds like a boob whenever I hear him speak. When's the last time you heard a Secretary of Commerce speak? On a more serious note, Richardson has always been a foreign policy wonk (from studying it in college through serving (briefly) as US Ambassador to the UN, plus bits beyond), and I think focusing on the foreign part of commerce is smart. It's a global world, we need to be focused on how we can make that work, rather than resisting it.

Speaking of technology, I found myself thinking, "Man, this is so amazingly awesome that we can do this" every time one of my planes took off on my recent trip to/from New York for a wedding, so this bit from Louis CK really cracked me up.

That's it today. Chances are good I'll miss tomorrow, and possibly Sunday as well, but the feeds are slow on weekends anyway so hopefully there won't be too much to catch up on Monday. Comment away to convince me to finish making my layout awesome.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Many of you probably know that I was not only pro-Obama during the primary and election, but I was anti-Hillary. Mainly this was because Hillary had showed in the past that she was a big supporter of the imperial presidency, from asserting executive privilege as First Lady to, darnit I can't find the quote right now, but mixed up in the whole "vast right-wing conspiracy" thing was an assertion that she didn't think they should be able to prosecute a sitting President. With the raping that Bush has given the Constitutional separation of powers, I didn't think Hillary was a good choice for our next President. It seemed very likely to me that she would not only keep the extra power that Bush had claimed for himself, but expand it. Obama, on the other hand, seemed like he might actually restore the Presidency to its Constitutional bounds, and still seems to be on that path.

But today I realized something important. If Hillary runs in 2016 (assuming both that Obama is a good President and that he is re-elected in 2012), she'll be coming into a White House that just went through restoring those bounds. She would be significantly restrained in her ability to re-assert the imperial Presidency; she'd have to undo what her Democratic predecessor had just worked so hard to do.

Since that was the only thing I didn't like about Hillary, even if it was a huge thing in my mind, eliminating that option would make her a great potential President. Which leads me to my endorsement of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State.

The one and only thing Republicans ever gain any traction on in Presidential campaigns is foreign policy. The Republicans know what they're talking about for foreign policy, people seem to think, and the Democrats do not. If she stays in as Secretary of State for somewhere close to 8 years (a surprisingly rare feat; the average shelf-life of a Secretary of State is just over 3 years, and only 14 of 66 have served more than 4 years, one of those being Powell by 6 days), she'll have more foreign policy experience than any conceivable opponent. Of course, I think there is a distinct possibility that she'll be Obama's running mate in 2012, but that would just shore up her experience even more.

In case you're wondering, the last time we had two consecutive, full-term, Democratic Presidents was, well, technically 1809-1825 (Madison and Monroe, Democratic-Republicans), although you could probably count 1933-1953 as close enough. Something similar to either of those spans would be just fine with me, minus, ya know, the near-nation-endingwars.

Jimmy Carter and others are going to visit Zimbabwe, despite warnings from Mugabe. Mugabe would be crazy to do anything bad, but, well, Mugabe is crazy. Kudos to Carter for (not all that surprisingly surprisingly) risking his life to do what he thinks is right, but eek!

Scientists have found the tomb of Copernicus. Mostly this doesn't seem like that important of a thing to do, since it's not like we're going to go worship at it or anything, but I like the idea of facial reconstruction to verify what he looked like. Cool stuff.

As always, comment on these or other shared items (or, really, anything you want) below.

Us hardcore Obama supporters are feeling kinda lost. As we vamp waiting for Bush to get the heck out of Obama's chair, we don't have much to do. But someone came up with something for us to do while we wait: the Yes We Cans! food drive. It's a cheesy pun and Obama-related, and it's for charity! Perfection!

I've wanted a Roomba for a while, mostly because I want to own a robot, and it couldn't hurt. But now, apparently, I also need a cat:

Burnt Orange Report dug up Obama's announcement from 1/16/2007 that he was going to form an exploratory committee and think about maybe running for President. That got me wondering, so I dug up the text of Bush's announcement on 3/7/1999. It's interesting to compare what Bush said back then to how things turned out. I'll have to remember to virtuablog or whatever we're calling it in 8 years, comparing Obama's speech to how things turned out. He's done a good job so far of sticking with the same message, but who knows what might happen over the next 8 years. I mean, who other than James Dobson.

I'm back in Austin. Well, I technically have been for over 24 hours now, but now I'm back and nearly settled back in. I still have 103105 107 unread items in my Google Reader (which gives me an idea what those of you who are on my shared list go through), but I'm catching up. I think. Anyhoo, here are the shared items from the last few days:

This story about antimatter creation made me smile a lot. In a science fiction novel I just finished, a major plot point involved production of anti-matter. I'm pretty sure this discovery puts us ahead of where the author saw us in 2020.

Lieberman is still a "Democrat." Dammit. I almost would have prefered us having no chance at a filibuster-proof Senate. Now Lieberman gets to continue being more important than he should be.

Speaking of filibuster-proof Senate chances, Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens has lost. Alaska didn't quite elect a convicted felon to the Senate. They just came very close. Of course, some of the outrage of that is silly. John Ashcroft lost a Senate race to a dead man, which I'm pretty sure makes you even more clearly inelligible for the Senate than being a convicted felon. I'm hoping at least some of the people voting for Stevens in Alaska were really voting for "whoever Caribou Barbie appoints to replace Stevens." Hmm, wait. I guess voting for the felon on purpose might be better.

Microsoft is going to offer free anti-virus software starting late next year. This should be interesting. I agree with the idea in principle; having antivirus software on all PCs would cut down drastically on the spread of viruses. On the other hand, this pretty much spells the end of other antivirus program makers, and I can't imagine MS's free system will be very good without competition. My solution: people should start programming more viruses for Mac, to keep those other companies active.

Firefox 3.1 is going to have tab tearing, a feature that I love on Google Chrome. I never noticed that it was missing in Firefox until I got in the habit of tearing off tabs in Chrome whenever I need to see things side-by-side, such as when I'm copying links from my shared items to my blog. If they can make 3.1 run for a whole afternoon without crashing, I might finally switch back.

That'll do it for today. Now off to work on some more of those unread items. As always, comment below so I know you're there!

We'll see if I can get through this on craptastic hotel internet here in New Windsor, New York (I'm going to a wedding at West Point tomorrow). Can anyone tell me why hotel wifi always seems like they're piping it through a dial-up modem?? Anyhoo, here are the shared items:

I love the idea of powerline broadband (using existing powerlines to carry high-speed internet, as I understand essentially by using the "noise" in the powerlines). I hope this plan to resurrect it pans out.

I want to love RFK, Jr (it seems like the right thing to do as a left-wing nutjob), but his anti-vax stuff means I can't support him for anything related to science, and head of the EPA falls squarely in that category. Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, has more (or at least links to more).

Oh, btw, with this post I pass my one-month post record for this blog (set in October, when I figured out this "post what I shared so people can comment" trick). Woohoo!

And yes, I shared a ton during the "driving way too far" phase of my trip, and am now blogging from the hotel. That's because, duh, I forgot to get text message blogging set up here; on the drive back, I should be able to blog from the road. Woohoo again!

I'm always interested to learn new, better ways to kill wasps. The gasoline we poured into their nests on the golf course when I was working the greens probably was neither safe nor environmentally friendly.

Phew. The new Obama voters didn't pass Prop 8 in CA. As expected, it was hateful old people. Note: I'm pretty sure at this point Nate Silver could claim something like, "If you analyze the exit polls properly, you can see that 97% of Kentucky residents have alien parasites eating their brains," and I'd believe him. Especially if it's about Kentucky and brain parasites.

That's it for today. I may have to subscribe to a new feed or two now that my politics feeds are relatively quiet....

Woohoo, I completely forgot that the stem cell nonsense was an executive order. Obama's getting ready to try to catch us up with Europe, and that first step only requires him to repeal that order. Good stuff.

I definitely want to do this. I just need to figure out what I'm going to do it with...

If any of you use AVG Anti-Virus Free (and, really, why wouldn't you, if you use a PC?), it's probably a good idea to read this before running your next scan.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Dammit, media (and fake media). You're making me kinda sorta defend Sarah Palin. Can you spot what Jon and Wyatt screwed up in this bit? (I quote the important bits below in case you don't want to watch it or the player is misbehaving as badly as it was for me):

Reporter: "She wasn't actually able to name all the countries in North America"

Jon: "She can't name 'em, but she knows 'em. I mean, there's us, there's gay us to the north, and burrito place..."

There's a small problem with that joke. Here's a hint: these are the countries in North America (not including territories):

Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Barbados

Belize

Canada

Costa Rica

Cuba

Dominica

Dominican Republic

El Salvador

Grenada

Guatemala

Haiti

Honduras

Jamaica

Mexico

Nicaragua

Panama

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

United States

How many of those could you name? Oh, what's that? You thought North America only included Canada, the US, and Mexico? Damn, how stupid are you???

The story is that Sarah Palin couldn't name the countries involved in NAFTA. The signatories of NAFTA are Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Yes, the name's a bit misleading, since that's only 3 of the 23 independent nations in North America, but this is basic gradeschool stuff. Stop it.

To be clear: From what I've heard, there were two separate things Palin didn't know: She didn't know the signatories of NAFTA, and she couldn't name all of the countries in Central America (which is part of North America). From what I could tell, she knew Central America is part of North America, which Jon Stewart didn't know. Stop making fun of her for that; you can't name all of them, either.

The Mormon church campaigned hard to get California's hate amendment passed. That's the set up you need to make this campaign funny.

Child's Play 2008 has begun. Donate a few dollars, Obama-campaign style. Yes we can make kids happy on Christmas.

Obama may be a geek. I've always liked that he's a Constitution geek and an open government geek, but I don't think I'd seen the Superman photo. BTW, his first name is spelled "Barack." That doesn't directly relate to the article, but I've been seeing a lot of "Barak." Stop that.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Here's what I've shared today. I lied about that no politics thing yesterday. Sorry, but I simply can't resist:

Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent (she thought it was a country). She also couldn't name the three countries in NAFTA, and refused to allow the McCain staff to prep her for the Katie Couric interview. While all this is being dumped on her by bitter staffers trying to blame her, remember: McCain picker her. I'm excited to see what he's like now that he'll never run for another office (unless he tries to stay in the Senate forever, of course).

I actually shared a couple things pointing to it, rather than the article itself, but this preview of the stuff Newsweek promised not to release until after the election has some good stuff. The best: Obama: "...I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

This duplicate files finder is very cool, especiall if, like me, you have a large shared music collection. Time to do some cleaning!

There officially wasn't a significant "Bradley Effect" (people telling pollsters they'll vote for the black guy, but actually being racist bastards at the polls). It looked to me like there might be in VA on election night, but it just took a while for the dem precincts to come in; when everything was counted, the actual results very closely matched the polls.

Rahm Emanuel is Barack's Chief of Staff (as hinted at a day or three before the election). Stop complaining about this, people! You don't throw a bone to the opposite party with this pick, you choose someone who will effectively execute the things you want to do as President. Obama never pretended to be centrist; he ran as a liberal alternative to the "failed philosophy"of conservatism. Don't be surprised that he picked someone who will execute his liberal philosophy! You also don't wait to pick this position if you want to get things done; you get them involved right away. Rahm Emanual was an excellent pick. In addition, it shows that Obama plans to work with Congress, rather than ruling by fiat. I'm very happy with this pick, as should be anyone who supports Obama (and, dammit, if you're against him, you should at least admit that this pick isn't surprising or a slap in the face or whatever other BS people are saying).

Obama now has an official US government website. My favorite thing about this site is that he published the transition directory (the book they give to the transition teams to get them ready to take over on inauguration day). Open government (the #1 thing on the long list of what I like about Obama) is a reality, woohoo!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

XKCD had a great summary of how I felt, especially in the secert mouseover-for-another-punchline part. To make the mouseover joke make as much sense as possible, Nate Silver is the guy who runs 538.com, and accurately predicted the popular vote to within 0.1% either way.

In that vein, Paul Krugman's article about monsters was great. You people are evil, dammit. We aren't gonna take it anymore. You have the gall to say we're not "real Americans," but you're the morons supporting torture. You're the morons working against science. Real Americans are for freedom and progress, they aren't defined by whether they live in a city or not.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

We got Ohio (and the expected but slightly scary PA and IA), so this thing is over. I had to get that posted before 10, when it'll really be over.

What now? Well, lots of states (including Texas) have governor elections in 2010. Find your candidate now (well, in the next week or three), and start working to get them elected. At the moment, my candidate is Kirk Watson, but that may change in the next few weeks.

Seeing someone you've been working for make it is extraordinarily exhilirating. Do it!

Monday, November 03, 2008

GREAT HOLY JEEBUS SARAH PALIN THINKS THE PRESS FACT-CHECKING HER INFRINGES HER FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS!!!! I'm not sure how I waited this long to write about that. That's worse than Bush's "There ought to be limits on freedom" in 2000 when he found out a web site was making fun of him (I'm sorry that transcript is the best citation I can find at the moment; those morons don't think that was important news, when in fact it was the best indicator of the Bush presidency we could have had). Bush had the First Amendment wrong, but Palin has it completely backward. If you have not already done so, get thee to a poll and vote against that maniac. She CANNOT be allowed into the White House with those beliefs, especially with a far-from-zero chance of having to take over the big chair!

I found this article about black holes over at Bad Astronomy to be very cool. I recommend it to any reader with geeky tendencies (note: this is likely all of you).

I don't think I ever remembered to share it in Reader, but this Plant Twitter Kit is awesome. I may have to get one in part to learn to adapt it; I really really want to set up one in each of my aquariums (aquaria?), so my fish can tell me when their water needs work. Maybe I can even teach them to twitter me when they want something.

A UT poll found that 23% of Texans still think Obama is a Muslim, compared to 5-10% nationwide. This is why I so rarely leave Austin. The rest of this state scares me.

This site has a handy poll closing time grid, so you can see when important polls close relative to your timezone. I hate to believe it, let alone blog it, but there are actually a few paths to Obama essentially having this thing wrapped up by 6pm my time. My party starts at 7. Oops. I mean, I can't root against Indiana, Virginia, and/or Georgia going into Obama's column, but it'd be weird for the party to focus almost exclusively at staying around to laugh at Ted Stevens.

Speaking of election watching, Nate Silver (of 538)'s "What to Watch For" article in Newsweek is a good read if you're planning to watch the polls rabidly like I am. Except, at least as of when I read it, he got California's Proposition 8 backward; it doesn't protect gay marriage, it puts hate into the California constitution. The hope is that conservatives/bigots will stay home and therefore not vote FOR it, because a vote for Prop 8 is a vote for hate.

I also didn't share this one, but I can't resist fiddling with RealClearPolitics' Electoral College Map widget. My "no surprises" prediction came out the same as their "No Toss Up States" map: 338 EVs for Obama (269 needed for him to tie and, therefore, win). My "you must be smoking something" scenario is 420 EVs to Obama, and I still contend that it's possible (or maybe even more). Remind your friends that he's probably gonna win anyway, so they really should vote for him so, when they're old, they can tell the story about voting for such a historic candidate. They don't want to have to say they didn't bother to vote, do they?

Did I mention that Palin confirmed herself to be even more batshit insane than you thought she was? Well, she did. WE CANNOT ELECT SOMEONE WITH SUCH A DANGEROUSLY BACKWARD UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONSTITUTION!! Not again, at least.

Comment below. I need to go root against the Redskins (94.4% accuracy is still better than just about any other predictor, even if obviously my skepticism doesn't allow me to really believe in this).

Sunday, November 02, 2008

I'm hearing a lot of talk (mostly joking... mostly) about Democrats moving to New Zealand if this country shows us once again that rational thinkers are in the minority. I realized today that we have a much better option, though; an option that we can all move to without any difficulty establishing residence: Alaska [PDF].